Wells Fargo & Company in its present form is the result of the 1998 merger of Norwest Corporation and the original Wells Fargo. The company kept the name to capitalize on the long history and nationwide name recognition of the Wells Fargo name.
The original Wells Fargo was founded in 1852 by Henry Wells and William G. Fargo, who also founded American Express. Wells Fargo was founded as a banking services company in California.
The company has many notable events in its history, such as the biggest bank heist in history at the Wells Fargo Depot in Connecticut.
Wells Fargo was the first company to offer internet banking in 1995.
Wells Fargo has had many major acquisitions over the years, including the 2008 acquisition of Wachovia Corporation, which allowed them to open Wells Fargo Securities.
Today Wells Fargo is the fourth-largest bank in the United States by assets and the largest by market capitalization.
Wells Fargo currently has more than 9,000 retail branches and 12,000 ATMs in 39 states and the District of Columbia and over 70 million customers.
Wells Fargo trades publicly on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol WFC, is a member of the S&P 500, has nearly 269,000 employees, and had $72.34 billion in revenue in 2020.
After losing customers to online banks, both Bank of America and Wells Fargo drastically cut back or removed bounced check fees and other banking fees in 2021.
Also in late 2021, executives at Wells Fargo announced that it was cutting expenses while providing more loans, which they expected would help boost earnings in 2022.
Wells Fargo maintains a corporate office in San Francisco, California
